Week Three in Thessaloniki!

Well, my first full week at Pinewood is finished and a new week has begun! Today I started teaching independently in the fourth grade. I will be teaching language arts all week and then add teaching another subject each week until I am teaching the entire day. It makes me extremely grateful that the COST Program student teaching requirements are much more flexible than my counterparts in the States. I can spend less time worrying about complex lesson plans and assessments and more time involved with my students and letting them guide the content we are learning. I fall more in love with the children in the fourth grade class every day. I have always been more inclined to teach little ones but teaching these students (combined with my wonderful practicum experience in the fifth grade last semester) is starting to make me believe that I would be more happy with older students.

In the future I would love to post pictures and stories about my students. The regulations in Greece are much more lenient where privacy in concerned. I will check with the principal of the elementary department to make sure that it is okay and then hopefully I will be able to post about what is going on in the classroom.

Obviously I did not take this picture. I stole it from the internet.
This is a photo of what Valaoritou looks like at night.

Outside of the classroom, I have had more chances to explore the nightlife of Thessaloniki. This weekend Emily and I (along with some of our native friends) went to the Valaoritou District again. This is an area downtown used to be very commercial but is now full of historical buildings that have been turned into pubs and bars blaring all kinds of music throughout the night: jazz, rock, pop, alternative...you name it. The streets are closed off for about three square blocks and the streets and alleys are full of young people.  The bars all have a unique quality about them. One is a Czech Pub, others are Irish, or Greek. Last weekend we went to one rooftop bar. We hiked up five flights of stairs to find a stunning roof garden with bars and tables and twinkly lights. They were projecting an old movie on the side of an adjacent building. You could see the entire Valaoritou District from the top, with the lights of the city surround it, and a full moon above. It was a spectacular view. This weekend we spent half of the time in Valaoritou and then I left with a friend (another Emily) and walked to the Ladadika District about half a kilometer away. Ladadika is a neighborhood that embodies everything I was expecting about coming to Greece. It's an old styled area between Valaoritou and the seaside full of restaurants outside with checkered tablecloths and musicians playing on the corner. In the day, it is the perfect place to lounge with a cappuccino and a book. The night scene in Ladadika is a little bit older and more subdued than its northern counter part. I was much more comfortable sitting and talking well into the night there.  (That's one issue about going out in Thessaloniki--the buses stop running at midnight and don't start up again until 6am. Native partygoers seemed unfazed by this.  Most young Thessalonians don't even leave the house until 2am and stay out until daylight. You have to be COMMITTED to cause. Anyone who knows me is aware that my ideal bedtime is between  8 and 9pm. It takes me two days to recover for the lack of sleep. I would never survive if this was a regular thing. I always grab a cab.)

It's true. Coke Light just does not compare.

I really love Thessaloniki and the Greek people. But I am--and I NEVER thought in a million years that I would say this--getting really sick of eating cheese and bread for every meal. It is usually the only option most of the time for a vegetarian. Even Emily, a carnivore, is getting bored of grilled feta and bread. I would do unspeakable things for a Chipotle burrito bowl right now. Recently I tried to be American and drink a Sprite thinking that I would be comforted by its sugary goodness. I couldn't be more wrong. The drinks here have a completely different flavoring. The Sprite actually tasted like Lemon-Lime instead of bubbly sugar just like the labeling implies (ridiculous!). And since we are on the subject of soda, let's talk about how Diet Coke does not exist in Greece. Instead there is Coke Light--what on Earth is that? It's way too sweet. It's poser Diet Coke and I resent it so much.

I wish I could post pictures of what I have been up to but unfortunately my phone has been broken and I just got it back from the repair shop. I'll spend more time taking photos this week to share!